Eagle basketball back on track

After a series of four games that Eastern Utah's Coach Brad Barton felt were not some of his team's best, the Eagles looked to be back on track with a pair of wins in Wyoming over a cold, even by Rock Springs standards, Thanksgiving weekend.

The Golden Eagles beat Western Wyoming 82-66 on Friday and then stomped Casper 76-55 on Saturday.

On Friday Jonathan Mills found himself in foul trouble early and was limited to 20 minutes of play. His time on the bench and the 27 turnovers in the game was worrysome to the coaching staff, but point guard Trevor Bamgartner scored 18 points along with Brady Hurst's 15 to help lead the Eagles to another win. Renan Custodio added 11 and Brandon Williams came off the bench to put up 10.

On Saturday EU took care of the ball and limited their turnovers to 12. Mills was able to hit for a double-double in 26 minutes of play, but fouled out with five including a technical. He had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Hurst stepped it up and had a monster game with 32 points and 13 rebounds as the Eagles took control of the game early. Aaron Hawk-Harris added 12. The team shot 68 percent from the field in the second half as well as 67 percent from the line to finish strong.

"We played well this weekend. Even though we were 2-2 over the previous four games, they were not some of our best," said Barton. "This weekend we played much better as a team and finally on Saturday we took care of the ball and limited our turnovers."

The 9-2 Eagles will play at home on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. against the Utah All-stars before heading to Rangely, Colo. ,to open conference play on Dec. 11 against Northwestern Colorado Community College.